Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

[manicsounds]

Got this from the Korean Film Archive:

2011 releases:

June:
"A Hometown In Heart" (Maeum-ui gohyang) (1949, Yoon Yong-Kyu)

July:
<'The Landscape of Postwar Period' Box Set>

"The Widow" (Mi-mang-in) (1955, Park Nam-Ok ),
"The Flower in Hell" (Ji-oghwa) (1958, Shin Sang-Ok)
"The Money" (Don) (1958, Kim So-Dong)
"A Drifting Story" (Pyoludo) (1960, Kwon Yeong-Sun)

October:
<Box Set of Director, Kim Su-Yong>

"The Seaside Village" (Gaenma-eul ) (1965),
"Mist" ( Angae) (1967),
"Confession of an Actress" ( Eoneu Yeobaeu-ui Gobaek) (1967),
"Night Journey" (Yahaeng) (1976)

Specs and Extras TBA

I still can't find an online listing for "A Hometown In Heart" yet

[manicsounds]

A Hometown In Heart preorder at yesasia, 6/20 release date.
Korean Dolby mono sound, with English, Korean, or Japanese subtitles,
digital extra only consists of an image gallery, but expect a lavish booklet.

[manicsounds]

Landscape After The War boxset preorder up at yesasia

[manicsounds]

Watched "A Hometown In Heart", and it was wonderful. KOFA did amazingly well for this one. They explain in more detail in the 30 page booklet, but the original film was lost in Korea, a producer had a 16mm copy in France, but in 2005 a full 35mm print was found in Japan, by the NFC (which is around the corner from where I work(!)) and used for this DVD. Contrast and detail are superb, and even though there are scratches all over, the print looks fantastically good, considering other lost Korean films of that age. Sound is also good on the most part. Obviously KOFA didn't do a huge restoration on this one as with "Housemaid" or "Black Hair", but it still looks great. Just wish they could have thrown in a commentary or a documentary on it, but it's still well-adequate.

[Finch]

Thanks, manicsounds, for the update. I didn't like The Housemaid so hopefully Hometown in the Heart will resonate more with me. Yesasia's prices were quite decent, for once.

[Perkins Cobb]

Anyone have any recent experience ordering the Korean Film Archive titles from Seoul Selection? They seem to have better prices than anyone else, unless the shipping kills it.

[manicsounds]

Seoul Selection is awesome. I use them all the time.

[triodelover]

Anyone have any recent experience ordering the Korean Film Archive titles from Seoul Selection? They seem to have better prices than anyone else, unless the shipping kills it.

I'll second manicsounds enthusiastic recommendation. Mr Kim always includes a little "treat". Most often postcards with drawings of Korean theater scenes or old neighborhoods of Seoul - things like that. His newsletter is a good read, also. I'd have to look it up, but as I recall, shipping isn't unreasonable. (Remember that YesAsia's prices with "free international shipping" have the shipping rates built in.) As always, shipping works out best with multiple items in the order.

[TIVOLI]

Assuming that it is acceptable on the forum to mention E-Bay sellers, I can recommend wooridvd, based in Seoul. I have always had good experiences with him, and there are some excellent deals to be found. These sometimes include used DVD's of films that are hard to find -Korean DVD's often go out of print astonishingly quickly. Of course, due to shipping costs, larger orders bring better savings.

[eerik]

Remastered A Bittersweet Life (Director's Cut) coming to Blu-ray in Korea.

Available as regular edition:



And digibook (limited to 1000 copies):



Release Date: August 25, 2011
Audio : Korean dts-HD
Subtitles : Korean, English, Japanese
Region: REGION A

Special Features
Audio Commentary 1: Director, Byung-Hun Lee, Yeong-Cheol Kim
Audio Commentary 2: Director, Director of Photography, Art Director
Audio Commentary 3: Director, Dong-Jin Lee (a critic) - new commentary for this release

Director’s Prologue (4m)
La Dolce Vita (17m 55s)
Making of A Bittersweet Life (25m 36s)
Style of A Bittersweet Life (68m 16s)
"Tell me Why?" (21m 23s)
Deleted and Alternate Scenes (23m 28s)
Interview with the Netizen (17m 19s)
A Bittersweet Life in Cannes (32m 53s)
Sweet Sleep (3m 32s)
EPK (6m 47s)


Source: blu-ray.com forums

[Finch]

I'm going to wait until reviews are in to see how the A/V fares.

[zombeaner]

As quickly as Korean Blu-rays disappear from the market, I ordered this just to be sure I get one. This is one of my favorite films from the last ten years. Overall Korea has a pretty decent record with Blu-ray, but I have read some stuff specifically about this film that makes me a bit nervous, although for my own enjoyment I'm not that picky.

[cache-cache]

There's also a two DVD disc director's edition of the above film. At least in Korea.

[bigP]

Terracotta Media are releasing a Kim Ki-duk DVD Double-Disc set of Crocodile & Arirang on November 19th.

[rockysds]

Blu-ray of Peppermint Candy coming March 21st.

[TIVOLI]

Can anyone comment on the Peppermint Candy blu-ray and how it compares to the Korean DVD edition?

[feihong]

Just got the Content Zone blu-rays of A Tale of Two Sisters and Sorum from Yesasia.

A Tale of Two Sisters looks stunning; completely sharp, with good-looking grain. The color is enormously vivid, and the sound is great. There are occasional tiny scratches, few and far between, but the depth of field looks great.

The whites in the film often have a blown-out look which I used to see on the Korean and the UK dvd editions as well. I always assumed that was a stylistic choice, and it seems to be here, too.

The source material for Sorum seems a bit older. There are a few more scratches, now and then, but they are very small in the image, and they are never distracting. The film is less saturated than A Tale of Two Sisters to begin with, but the color looks true to its origins. As a result I think the picture looks just a tad thinner, closer to the look of Turning Gate on blu-ray. But I'm not sure that's what's happening. This is a movie with a lot of crisp, flat black shadow in most of its compositions. The picture is extremely sharp; one shot of the tourist village shows ridiculous sharp clarity across the whole of the image, and building by building, field by field, the entire village seems to be in hard focus.

There are some murkier-looking scenes in the apartments, but they look to me as if they were meant to appear that way. This looks like a pretty great package, all around, and of one of my favorite Korean movies, to boot. Now, if someone only releases Memento Mori this way on Blu-ray, I'll be thrilled.

[warren oates]

Thanks for the heads-up about A Tale of Two Sisters. I was disappointed that the Tartan USA Blu-ray was announced and then canceled. I had no idea it was out in Korea.

[feihong]

I held off on the UK disc of Tale of Two Sisters because I heard it was terrible, and then, like you I was disappointed when the US blu-ray disappeared. The disc just came out in Korea.

It seems as if there's a push to revisit the "Korean New Wave" movies on blu-ray in South Korea. I'm glad we're getting the opportunity to see the films this way. There's even a blu-ray of Beat, as it turns out. Sorum, I thought I'd always have to watch in Standard def, so that was a big surprise.

So I don't know if I should be hopeful for Memento Mori, or Attack the Gas Station, or Barking Dogs Never Bite, or Die Bad. But those are films I would really love to see on blu-ray one of these days.

[rockysds]

I held off on the UK disc of Tale of Two Sisters because I heard it was terrible, and then, like you I was disappointed when the US blu-ray disappeared. The disc just came out in Korea.

It seems as if there's a push to revisit the "Korean New Wave" movies on blu-ray in South Korea. I'm glad we're getting the opportunity to see the films this way. There's even a blu-ray of Beat, as it turns out. Sorum, I thought I'd always have to watch in Standard def, so that was a big surprise.

So I don't know if I should be hopeful for Memento Mori, or Attack the Gas Station, or Barking Dogs Never Bite, or Die Bad. But those are films I would really love to see on blu-ray one of these days.

Ask, and you will receive.

[feihong]

Thanks for pointing that out! I'm thrilled. I'm going to have to keep repeating Memento Mori until they get on the ball with that one as well--it's probably my favorite South Korean film. Maybe if I wish hard enough, they'll do Take Care of My Cat and The Quiet Family as well?

[feihong]

Would anybody recommend Marriage is a Crazy Thing? That picture is out on blu-ray right now. I remember good review back in the day.

[feihong]

Has anybody seen a blu-ray that is subject to disc rot before? My copy of Memories of Murder froze during a crucial scene and refused to play the subsequent scene. I took a look at the disc, and that milky, swimmy thing that happens to them is happening. I've never seen it happen on a blu-ray before, though.

Luckily, it looks like CJ still has a Memories of Murder blu-ray for sale. Hopefully it's the same transfer of the film as in my version (I had CJ's original release of the film on blu.

[feihong]

The Korean blu-ray of Barking Dogs Never Bite arrived today and I took a quick look at it.

It's loads better than the Spectrum DVD, or the r1 DVD. There's depth, a decently sharp picture, and very little that looks like DNR.

The print, though, is clearly "vintage," with some occasional pops and scratches. But it's a minor concern. Long shots are full of background detail, and closeups looks fantastic. The very warm, low-contrast color scheme of the movie seems to be replicated very well. The color shifts present in the Spectrum DVD are gone.

There is some occasional ghosting, in the low-contrast action scenes--especially when Bae Doona is chasing Lee Sung-Jae through the apartment building corridors. I'm not sure what this should be attributed to, however. The pixels don't swim the way they do when there's excessive DNR. The more contrast-y scenes--the night scenes in particular--have plenty of grain in them and look quite handsome.

In general, the disc looks very much like the Content Zone discs of the Hong Sang-Soo movies and Sorum. They are great improvements over the DVDs, but they don't seem quite like Criterion-level picture quality.

[Applesauce]

The Korean blu-ray of Barking Dogs Never Bite arrived today and I took a quick look at it.

By any chance, does the commentary have English subs?